Sunday, October 4th, 2009
“I’ve been a bike courier for 27 years, always in D.C. nonstop. We don’t make no money anymore, though, and the courier companies are hiring new people who don’t know what they’re doing. They are firing all of us veterans and taking on all of the rookies for cheap. Come on, man, these rookies don’t know the busines and they don’t have people’s respect.
“Most buildings want customer service. They want the courier to be polite, respectful, and to dress well when he comes inside the office. Now, these new couriers have no respect and because of that, none of us can go inside of offices because clients don’t want to see no raggedy looking rookie courier, someone who doesn’t take a bath or turn his radio down, come inside the office.
“Things also changed when the Capitol Hill police officers got shot and with the Anthrax scare, they didn’t want us in the buildings no more. Whenever anything goes wrong, they blame the couriers. Then, when the terrorists came in, that really blew it for us. We had enough problems dealing with the fax machine. Now, we got to deal with terrorism!
“Nowadays, the only people that’s making money is the security because every building you go in, you got to see a security guard. Back when I was doing work, there were no security guards. You could go in the building, drop off a package and leave. Today, you have security in the lobby and one on each floor. I think everyone is too paranoid.
“Now, I’m working in a guaranteed company that isn’t going nowhere, so, if I can maintain and keep coming to work everyday, I might be out here for another 15 or 20 years.”
Read more about D.C. bike couriers here.

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